"Maudlin Delusions"
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What You Need To Know:
OPAL DREAM doesn't hold up. It is a quirky movie reminiscent of 1960s symbolist movies such as KING OF HEARTS, but not as good. It confuses faith, which is real, with delusion, which is not real and is nominalistic. In other words, in a way it wants to go along to get along. If you have enough faith that you're going to find your opal, you will. In reality, however, faith is a gift from God and is built in the secure foundation of the reality of God's Creation and His covenant. It is not whimsy or vain imaginings.
Content:
(PaPaPa, B, L, V, A, M) Very strong nominalistic pagan worldview, with imaginary characters that may not exist and delusions passing for dreams as well as some moral content; six obscenities and one profanity; man is beaten outside of a bar but not much shown, firebombing of house, explosion in mine, and man threatens to blow another man's head off with shotgun; no sex scenes but one kiss; no nudity; alcohol use; no smoking; and, town castigates individual, delusions indulged; and, nothing else objectionable.
More Detail:
OPAL DREAM wants to be a family movie, but it is not. It is about a little girl, Kellyanne Williamson, whose imaginary friends are so real to her that they almost destroy her family in the Australian Outback. Rex, her father, has his own delusions. He is mining for opals along with many other people in an area that’s been mined out and mined over. At the school beauty pageant, Kellyanne says that she is not trying out but her imaginary friend, Pobby and Dingan, are instead. The families at the pageant laugh at her. Rex is fed up with her imaginary friends. Her brother, Ashmol, doesn’t want to be associated with her. So, Kellyanne puts on a spigot of tears, and her mother convinces the father to bear with her, at least during the Christmas season. Note the irony. The parents promote the Santa Clause fantasy and the opal fantasy but are troubled by Pobby and Dingan.
To make everybody happy, Rex and Ashmol decide to take the imaginary friends to the mine. They make some homemade explosives and part of the mine collapses. When they return, Kellyanne says they don’t have Pobby and Dingan with them. In the middle of the night, they go looking for them. Another miner in the plot right next to Rex’s thinks that Rex is trying to steal his mine. After threatening to shoot Rex, he reports Rex to the police.
Kellyanne starts to lose weight and gets sick, having lost her imaginary friends. The other miners beat up Rex for “ratting,” or stealing opal. A trial is set for Rex. Ashmol decides to try to find Pobby and Dingan. He finds wrappers from the candies they like to eat in the destroyed section of the mine, and he finds the opal that Dingan had in her belly button. Ashmol tells Kellyanne that her friends have been killed and pays the undertaker with the opal he found to conduct a full-fledged funeral.
The trial, meanwhile, seems to be going against Rex. Why would he be walking around the mine in the middle of the night? The story of imaginary friends doesn’t hold up.
OPAL DREAM doesn’t hold up either. It is a quirky movie reminiscent of 1960s symbolist movies such as KING OF HEARTS, but not as good. It confuses faith, which is real, with delusion, which is not real and is nominalistic. In other words, in a way it wants to go along to get along. If you have enough faith that you’re going to find your opal, you will. The truth of the matter is that faith is a gift from God, and it is built in the secure foundation of the reality of God’s Creation and His covenant. It is not whimsy or vain imaginings. As the author of Hebrews writes, faith is the evidence of the unseen things and promises of God through Jesus Christ.
The character of Kellyanne is very annoying in parts of the movie, although very well acted. Someone should have given her a spanking before she put her father’s life in jeopardy. It is rare that I have seen a character in a movie who is so spoiled. Maybe the movie is setting us up for MARIE ANTOINETTE.
The setting of OPAL DREAM is in the bleak Australian Outback. The quirky characters seem to scurry through the scenes like desert critters. There is a unity and a purpose to the direction and acting, but it does not come off as interesting or appealing. So much more could have been done with OPAL DREAM that watching it engenders feeling of pathos.
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Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
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